Cascade Mountain – Canadian Rockies

If you’re wondering why the content of this page keeps changing, my editor killed the page and I had to resurrect an older version from a backup. Same thing with my Mount Cory page.

The first attempt I made on this peak failed. My partner for the day Officer Rob Davidson of the Calgary Police Service had a knee injury that we thought would be OK. About half way up the mountain, the knee was hurting.

I told him I had no problem going back down; “Cascade isn’t going any where” I said. Rob is a determined individual, but when pain talks we get lame walks. It just isn’t worth a chronic injury to push that hard.

July20/ 01

The next attempt was with Ann, eight days after we summited Mount Cory. About half way up I experienced some dizziness and a heart palpitation. This was my first adrenalin rush of the season, and not the last.

I sat down, drank some fluids, then continued to the summit. The rush was spawned by a look over a sharp crest. In lousy shape, I was pushing hard and so the adrenalin was more than my straining heart could take. It lost it’s rhythm and blood flow to my brain was compromised for a moment. Some people also talk of tunnel vision, this is a sign of pushing too hard.

As for the Mountain;
my whole life, every time I passed through Banff, I always looked up at the pyramid of Cascade Mountain with awe. Now on the summit, it was a special moment in a special place (to me). As for this Ann chick, she just blew it off as “just a hike”.

Cloud over Cascade Mountain

When we got back to Ann’s truck, She Mumbled something about Superman. I was very flattered, but on that day it was obviously a wee exaggeration. However, one can always aspire to great heights, can’t one? I must fly!

Cascade is a wonderful mountain, the object of many an artist. I’ve noticed however that none have captured the mountain from the Bow Valley. They all seem to derive their perspective from each other. I’m going to set my tripod just below the falls some morning, looking up at the looming mountain from an inferior perspective, cowering under it’s massive girth. And then I will go conquer it again, as fast as I can.

The mystic purchases a moment of exhilaration with a lifetime of confusion; and the confusion is infectious and destructive. It is confusing and destructive to try and explain anything in terms of anything else, poetry in terms of psychology.

Basil Bunting
1900-1985, British Poet

Cascade Gallery

Cloud over Cascade Mountain

Officer Rob

Sheep on a ledge The false summit is above

Looking north up Forty Mile Creek

The Bow Corridor looking back

Gray-crowned Rosy Finch These birds seem to love summit snow.

Rundle Mountain on the left, Tunnel Mountain in the middle (see road) Stoney Squaw Mountain on the bottom right

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